Our Pattern Language

Having read the Gang of Four software patterns and the Head First version on the same topic, I can say I was not overly impressed with the content of this paper. There is very little sustenance to the paper of which there is significant interest to tell the software development community.

The author organized the patterns into a stacked, layered system. The categories in which the patterns are organized are:

• Architectural patterns
• Computational patterns
• Parallel algorithm strategy patterns
• Implementation strategy patterns
• Concurrent execution patterns
  

With roughly fifty patterns spread across the five categories, I was expecting quite a bit more of information. Where are the problem description, context, solution, and examples? In short, where's the beef?

Obviously an incomplete work and work in progress, this paper on OPL is more of a teaser. The author says "experienced parallel programmers will most likely understand the intent of the patterns just from these brief descriptions." The descriptions presented to the reader are brief. Unfortunately for me, I do not fall in this category. The more detailed descriptions are on the wiki.

With the remaining limited advancement and imminent stalemate of hardware design, parallel programming is going to be the key to utilizing available resources and increasing the processing capabilities in software applications. This paper and accompanying information on the wiki could become the guidance needed to push software over the top.